Plenary Session
Capitalization Strategies for the Bioeconomy
Robert Egerton
Robert Egerton has been with CoBank since 1996 and is responsible for managing the Commercial Agribusiness Division operations of the Wichita, Omaha and Louisville banking centers, as well as the Northeast Association relationships in the Farm Credit System. He is based in Denver. His team specializes in serving agricultural cooperatives that process, market, transport and export agricultural commodities. The majority of the customers are in the grain marketing and farm supply industries. Commercial Agribusiness also serves the fruit, nut and vegetable marketing, dairy and livestock, rice, cotton, sweeteners and ethanol industries, as well as credit and finance companies. Egerton is a member of CoBank's Senior Management Team.
Prior to joining CoBank, Egerton served for ten years as president and CEO of the Empire Farm Credit, ACA, in New York. Egerton has more than 31 years of lending experience serving agricultural producers and cooperatives. He began his career as a loan officer in Middletown, N.Y. From there, he spent five years with the Farm Credit Bank of Springfield in loan approval and credit training. From 1984 through 1986, Egerton served as vice president for the Springfield Bank for Cooperatives.
Thomas C. Dorr
Thomas C. Dorr oversees USDA Rural Development policies and programs as Under Secretary. Rural Development consists of three program areas -- business, utilities and housing -- that provide $14 billion annual funding authority for loans, grants, and technical assistance to rural residents, communities, and businesses and an $87 billion portfolio of existing business, housing, and infrastructure loans to rural America. Rural Development has over 7,000 employees located across the United States and in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Western Pacific Trust territories.
Mr. Dorr previously served as Under Secretary for Rural Development under a recess appointment from August 2002 to December 2003. After his recess appointment ended, he was named Senior Advisor to the Secretary for Rural Development Issues. In this position, Mr. Dorr coordinated several major initiatives on behalf of the Secretary. He played critical roles in USDA disaster relief efforts in response to the hurricanes in Florida; he worked closely with the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights to reach out to minority farmers; and he provided key leadership on various activities to improve program management and business practices throughout the USDA.
Willis Hanson
Willis Hanson is the president and chief executive officer of the State Bank of Lawler, and the chairman of the board and director of the First Community Bank in Savage, Minnesota. He was the past director of the Iowa Bankers Association, Iowa Bankers Insurance & Services, Inc. and the Bankers’ Bank in Madison, Wisconsin. Prior to banking, he served as the director of and as the vice president of manufacturing of the Clay Equipment Corporation in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Hanson has been active in funding ethanol plants. He was the founding member of the Golden Grain Ethanol Project, which developed the Golden Grain Energy ethanol production company with a plant in Mason City, Iowa. Golden Grain Energy's plant has close access to such major cities as Minneapolis, Omaha, and Chicago. The company's plant, which began operating in late-2004, is capable of processing some 15 million bushels of corn into about 40 million gallons of ethanol, and 120,000 tons of distillers' grains per year.